Androids


Advice

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I like the race, I really do; it's pretty much the closest thing to my all time favorite race, the Warforged from the Eberron setting.

Has anyone ever actually played one, and if so, how did you do it? I'm trying to wrap my head around the lack of background information on the race, as well as how to play the emotionless angle.

Ideally, I'd like to eventually play an android character. But so far, my mind is drawing blanks.


If you check the "Guide to the Guides" sticky, check out "Race of Pathfinder: An Optimization Guide". There's a little section about the mechanical aspects of the android race.


SunsetPsychosis wrote:
If you check the "Guide to the Guides" sticky, check out "Race of Pathfinder: An Optimization Guide". There's a little section about the mechanical aspects of the android race.

Yup, I've read that. I'm more interested in the fluffy roleplaying aspects of the race.

For instance, they are emotionless, or at least don't feel enough to be affected by morale bonuses or fear effects. How would one roleplay that? Like Commander Data?

And how does this lack of emotion influence their morality? Wouldn't it be difficult for a being that cannot feel remorse or sadness to avoid evil actions, seeing as h=they are often the most expedient or logical method of success?


It could present an interesting interpretation of a Neutral or Lawful Neutral alignment. I can't see it being anything else, personally.

Data is a pretty good popular example. Spock is another potential influence. You could play it cold, or have some 'attempt to find humanity' thing going on.

Shadow Lodge

King_Of_The_Crossroads wrote:
For instance, they are emotionless, or at least don't feel enough to be affected by morale bonuses or fear effects. How would one roleplay that? Like Commander Data?

I'm playing an Android Psion/Wizard in a Rise of the Runelords game, and I'm trying to play him like Data as a "mad scientist" (so maybe more like Dr. Soong) who was sent out to learn as much as possible about ancient Thassilon, and the modern people of Varisia. He tries (poorly) to pass himself off as a "normal human" who is interested in "normal human activities". He feels the best way to learn is by doing, so he's starting to dabble heavily in the darker aspects of sin magic, especially Greed.

King_Of_The_Crossroads wrote:
And how does this lack of emotion influence their morality? Wouldn't it be difficult for a being that cannot feel remorse or sadness to avoid evil actions, seeing as h=they are often the most expedient or logical method of success?

Mine understands the concept of morality in more of a practical aspect. "Evil" actions are frowned upon by society, and make it more difficult to interact with society. "Good" actions are rewarded by society, and make it easier to achieve ones goals. He's not always clear on why an action is considered "Evil", but learning the difference is part of his mission of discovery.

Out of character, though, he's definitely on the south side of Lawful Neutral. I know that if I stray too far my alignment will be changed to match my actions, even though that wouldn't register to the character itself.


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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

have your character be a logic focused person with an hindered ability to display emotion. also have them take what people are saying by there word.

ex.NPC:"eat manure you heartless machine!"
Android:"Why would I eat manure, its an amount of fecal matter used by farmers to fertilize their fields. why waste it by consuming it yourself when it holds better benefits to eat the food that is grown from it. also how am i heartless when i have an artificial heart in my chest that is very smiler to your in every function except origin."
NPC:.............that's supposed to be an insult.
Android: For what. did i perform an action or say something that caused you to be angry with me?

little lectures and having the character think like a machine from a sci-fi movie, book, or game will help.

also in the case of alignment consider it a form of programming. an android can be good if it is programmed for good behavior, or evil for evil behavior. though i agree it is less likely that they are chaotic unless they are somehow programmed that way for a reason. also alignment changes are possible as the magic effect or course of actions can corrupt a androids electronic brain.

Liberty's Edge

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Simple way to make an LG fantasy robot. Have him built with rules.

For example: Serve the public trust, Protect the innocent, Uphold the law.

There are others, such as Asimov's Laws, but, you can always come up with whatever your characters 'father' came up with for laws.


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You could make a trio of Android bards.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojYK6CW8gdw[/url]


Mystic Lemur wrote:
Mine understands the concept of morality in more of a practical aspect. "Evil" actions are frowned upon by society, and make it more difficult to interact with society. "Good" actions are rewarded by society, and make it easier to achieve ones goals. He's not always clear on why an action is considered "Evil", but learning the difference is part of his mission of discovery.

That is true, 'good behavior' (returning lost goods, helping an injured person) tends to have less troublesome consequences than 'bad' behavior (stealing, hurting people, accusations of theft if you didn't return an item you found, criminal negligence if you left a person to die). It is a simple enough pattern that it would be easy to understand even if they cannot understand why these occur.

A sociopath lacks empathy, but they can fake it. And they often do, both due to the ease with which they can lie and the need to appear 'normal.' This can be similarly seen in androids. Now, the psychological term I used was charged, although appropriate. Know that your character does not need to carry the weight of a psychological illness (since there are other symptoms of the disorder that would impair your general judgment). And heck, even if the android is just wearing a mask of a paladin, how is it different from us? Many noble quests are started because the players wanted an excuse for bloodshed and treasure. If you ever experienced a GM providing "karma" for an evil player, you can see the perspective of an android in a human society overseen by literal manifestations of morality that dart about.

Of course, everyone wants to lean towards LN for androids. One of your main concerns, King of the Crossroads, was that this character would lack morality and be unable to follow society's rules. That sounds CN or CE to me. Remember, the alignment system is largely based upon how a creature interacts within a HUMAN society (specifically, one with strong moral overtones of late Western Civilization; read up on post-colonialism for more on the subject). Even if it follows its own programming, your android could be an unholy menace upon everyone. I am kind of sad that you can't have an android barbarian (that actually works). A juggernaut with glowing red eyes going berserk would be amazing.

Grand Lodge

Android Disney Princess Bard Drossel?

Drossel Dawnflower Dervish?

Breakdance Robot?


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lemeres wrote:
A sociopath lacks empathy, but they can fake it. And they often do, both due to the ease with which they can lie and the need to appear 'normal.' This can be similarly seen in androids.

A sociopath HAS emotions though. They just fundamentally don't care about other people (except with regards to how it benefits themselves). Basically, they don't have functioning mirror neurons in their brain so they are incapable of feeling for others. They feel for themselves just fine. Caring only for themselves and not for others is what makes their behavior abhorrent.

Androids aren't going to have that problem per se. Also, they have no predilection for logic going by what's written. I think you could easily play them as being of any alignment. The main thing is that they just don't understand the emotions of others or themselves (and likely have very weak emotions if any). Though they can learn to understand the emotions of others.

Having desires or wants is kind of essential to a character. So you'll have to give any android some semblance of desire or it wouldn't have any reason to do anything. If it truly had no emotion at all, you'd just have reflexive actions and it wouldn't have any reason to value itself or others. No reason to DO anything. You could try to distinguish between values and emotions, but I do not believe this is a fruitful avenue. Why would a being without ANY emotions care about its values? So an android has to have some level of emotions in order to have wants, values, or whatever. It does not need the spectrum of human emotions, however.

So any alignment should be good depending on its values and whatever conviction in those values it has. Since the alignment system is more or less based on certain values in particular, it wouldn't be hard to get some ideas for values as far as alignment is concerned. I wouldn't stick to just alignment-based ones, however.

Oh, and just because an android has trouble understanding emotions, doesn't mean that it only views ethics in terms of rewards and punishments. They are more intelligent than humans, on average. So one would expect them to be quite capable of philosophy and higher level ideas. One could easily be Lawful Good for noble reasons. It might not understand emotions well, but pain is a pretty basic concept. Things don't like to be in pain*, and there's no logical reason to inherently value one individual's wants over another's. Therefore, reducing the overall amount of pain is a logical conclusion. On the other hand, another android could be highly self-centered, and hence not go along with the idea of not valuing one person more than another. Or one could be somewhere inbetween, valuing comrades, which would be fairly neutral.

And of course, there's no particular reason why an android needs to be logical. Or any reason why logical would imply a lawful alignment. The important bit about androids is emphasizing that it doesn't really understand emotions overall -- which would generally mean having trouble properly responding to the emotions of others, though there's no reason it couldn't pick up on certain social conventions or whatnot about dealing with emotions.

Though, looking at the penalty to JUST sense motive, I wouldn't read TOO much into things. They can be capable at diplomacy, intimidate, and bluff. Their main problem is in reading the emotional state of other people (unless it is obvious). Telling when someone is lying, for instance, is something they find quite difficult.

Grand Lodge

So, Android Asberger's?

Shadow Lodge

I'd suggest reading The Caves of Steel. R Daneel Olivaw is an interesting take on robots, emotion, and morality. For starters, R Daneel has been programmed with a desire for justice. Like all of Asimov's robots, he's also incapable of harming a human or allowing them to come to harm, and he has to follow orders from humans. Not a half-bad model for an android paladin, if you adjust 'human' to 'innocent' and 'from legitimate authority.' As for emotions, he explains at one point that while he might not "feel happy," his artificial brain works more efficiently when he behaves according to certain principles, and that's close enough to feeling happy for all practical purposes.


Drachasor wrote:
A sociopath HAS emotions though. They just fundamentally don't care about other people (except with regards to how it benefits themselves). Basically, they don't have functioning mirror neurons in their brain so they are incapable of feeling for others. They feel for themselves just fine. Caring only for themselves and not for others is what makes their behavior abhorrent.

Yeah, I realize the example is not perfect. But I can hardly point to well known examples of humans lacking emotions, due to several limiting factors such as: many such individuals might be near catatonic, telling the difference between a lack of emotions and lack of open display of them, and many more. Plus, an android wouldn't have mirror neuron too...due to a lack of neurons in general. I suppose they could be programmed to simulate empathy, but that would be a cop out RP-wise. I was just choosing this as an example in society of someone 'faking' a mental quality they lack.

Plus, I chose the term since.... well many characters would be diagnosed as sociopaths anyway unless the player really got into roleplaying. A similar lack of emotions might be par for course for some players. That could be an interesting take: playing a character like it was used by player focused on "winning" a tabletop game, but have the rest of the characters react appropriately to such behavior.

Liberty's Edge

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These threads address this topic extensively (especially the second one), with James Jacobs dropping in there to give some advice on how to handle the 'emotionless' thing (which, thematically, seems to resemble not understanding emotions at all more than it does completely lacking them).


lemeres wrote:
Drachasor wrote:
A sociopath HAS emotions though. They just fundamentally don't care about other people (except with regards to how it benefits themselves). Basically, they don't have functioning mirror neurons in their brain so they are incapable of feeling for others. They feel for themselves just fine. Caring only for themselves and not for others is what makes their behavior abhorrent.

Yeah, I realize the example is not perfect. But I can hardly point to well known examples of humans lacking emotions, due to several limiting factors such as: many such individuals might be near catatonic, telling the difference between a lack of emotions and lack of open display of them, and many more. Plus, an android wouldn't have mirror neuron too...due to a lack of neurons in general. I suppose they could be programmed to simulate empathy, but that would be a cop out RP-wise. I was just choosing this as an example in society of someone 'faking' a mental quality they lack.

Plus, I chose the term since.... well many characters would be diagnosed as sociopaths anyway unless the player really got into roleplaying. A similar lack of emotions might be par for course for some players. That could be an interesting take: playing a character like it was used by player focused on "winning" a tabletop game, but have the rest of the characters react appropriately to such behavior.

The problem with using sociopaths as some sort of guideline is that it just doesn't work. Sociopaths DO understand human emotions and are perfectly capable of recognizing emotions in others. Understanding the emotional state of someone else is very different than caring about it or in any way feeling it. Mirror neurons are what cause you to wince when you see someone else hurt; they literally make you feel a bit of what you perceive someone else feeling (which might not be what they are feeling). Without that, humans don't have a value for others.

But androids don't have to work like humans do. There's no reason they couldn't programmed to regard other life as important. They might not be able to fully understand other life, but that's a different matter than caring about it. Heck, even not being able to fully understand emotions doesn't mean they can't understand the very basic stuff like pain, fear, etc. They might just not understand how such emotions in sentient beings works given the very complex nature of societies. It's certainly one way you could go with them.

The point is that there is a wide spectrum of possible ways to handle a being that doesn't understand emotions well.

blackbloodtroll wrote:
So, Android Asberger's?

It would certainly a bit like that. If you have trouble recognizing emotions, then you're going to have trouble putting behavior in its proper context. When to apologize won't always be clear if you can't recognize that you've hurt someone. Though that doesn't mean you wouldn't regret hurting them if it was pointed out to you. It's a bit different than Asberger's since that condition has more to do with just not having the machinery to automatically pick up any social conventions -- as best I understand it, someone with Asberger's can be perfectly capable of recognizing emotions in others, but they have a lot of trouble learning all the little rules a given society unconsciously follows.


Crowley, so we meet again... Hrmph.

My thoughts are Roy Batty!

I based an andoid wizard personality on the melding of Roy, Pris, Mr. Data, and Vision. She was a lot of fun to play. The most fun was when people spoke in idiom, and I got to deliberatly take them seriously. Eventually my android caught on though.

About three sessions in, our party witch actually asked me to make sure I didn't let the cat out of the bag. So I stuffed her familiar in a pillow case, then tried to defend the poor cat from the party's advances and attempts to let it back out.

I picked a purpose for my android to have been built for (I figure someone builds a tool for a purpose) and made sure to keep that in mind as we played (Pris).

Don't really know what else to say. They are fun! Amazing wizards!


You can also take the race as a self-aware "young" race. That they can see that the other races have carved out niches and kingdoms and such but they don't have much. A goal for such a character (cavalier type, or really any) might be to carve out an android kingdom/place in the world. Or an android oracle/cleric trying to find/create a god for the race because races have gods and that's apparently important.


Journ-O-LST-3 wrote:
You can also take the race as a self-aware "young" race. That they can see that the other races have carved out niches and kingdoms and such but they don't have much. A goal for such a character (cavalier type, or really any) might be to carve out an android kingdom/place in the world. Or an android oracle/cleric trying to find/create a god for the race because races have gods and that's apparently important.

They might not really understand the idea of worship (which is kinda important for Clerics and such). However, I could see one trying to fashion some sort of divine power source or its equivalent for other androids to potentially use. Perhaps a wizard Android might do this on a specially created demiplane (that could be the goal).

Android Clerics and the like would login to this system, and be granted user rights as appropriate for their clearance and access level.


They get a bonus to INT, they can somehow figure out the idea of worship and gods. There is also empirical evidence for gods and their powers. Similarly, they could also be drawn to different gods as they choose. Or they may go for the worship a philosophy/ideal as well.

The thing is that the entry on them is pretty empty of descriptions beyond they seem weird but nothing says one who somehow lives in a place can't figure out real quick why that dude over there can banish a disease with a touch.

Scarab Sages

Hmm.. maybe you could play the long term goal of an Android character to be to take the Test of the Starstone and become a god for all Androids.


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Drachasor wrote:
Journ-O-LST-3 wrote:
You can also take the race as a self-aware "young" race. That they can see that the other races have carved out niches and kingdoms and such but they don't have much. A goal for such a character (cavalier type, or really any) might be to carve out an android kingdom/place in the world. Or an android oracle/cleric trying to find/create a god for the race because races have gods and that's apparently important.

They might not really understand the idea of worship (which is kinda important for Clerics and such). However, I could see one trying to fashion some sort of divine power source or its equivalent for other androids to potentially use. Perhaps a wizard Android might do this on a specially created demiplane (that could be the goal).

Android Clerics and the like would login to this system, and be granted user rights as appropriate for their clearance and access level.

*LOGIN*

Please Enter Command:
IDQD

*Godmode engaged*


blackbloodtroll wrote:
So, Android Asberger's?

In my experience at home, a person with aspergers experiences as many emotions as the rest of us, but veryveryvery often appears incapable of empathy or even recognizing it others. They may or may not express the emotion in a "normal" way.

Liberty's Edge

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Ciaran Barnes wrote:
In my experience at home, a person with aspergers experiences as many emotions as the rest of us, but veryveryvery often appears incapable of empathy or even recognizing it others. They may or may not express the emotion in a "normal" way.

As someone with Aspergers, and a Psychology major, this is...misleading, though not precisely untrue. Having Aspergers means that you lack the inherent ability to perceive the signs (especially body language) of emotion in others, and that your own instinctual responses are out-of-synch with more normal people, but it's not a lack of empathy per se...people with Aspergers are more than capable of empathizing with others if they understand (whether through training or having it explained to them) what the people in question are experiencing.

So, for example, someone with Aspergers might not express sympathy when their friend is acting sad because they are unfamiliar with the signs of sadness he's demonstrating and thus don't know he's sad...but as soon as they realize (or are informed) how their friend feels, they'll feel as bad and be as likely to express sympathy as anyone else (though they may not understand how normal people do that, and thus choose what's perceived as an odd or inappropriate way of doing so).

Now by a technical definition of the word 'empathy' that qualifies as lack of empathy, but it doesn't match up very well with how that phrase is usually used.

It's a little bit like the problem everyone has where they can't gauge tone properly on the internet, only all the time in real life, though it does have the advantage that you can learn ways around it, I suppose.

Grand Lodge

@Deadmanwalking:

That sort of sounds like the way Androids, in this setting, are described.

That's not a bad thing.


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Wow, you explained my 15 year old way better than I ever could. I tell her she's a changling - a fairy child swapped with a human child at birth. She knows I'm full of it though. :)


Wow, this thread has spawned some fascinating discussion on the topic of empathy and general psychology. I'm impressed.

What's hard about figuring out the emotionless aspect of the race is based on a lack of history. I'll use the warforged from Eberron as a comparison. Like the androids, the warforged are a form of living constructs crafted for use in the Last War; they were sold to any and all countries that wanted tireless soldiers who followed orders without question.

After the war ended, the nations signed a treaty ensuring an uneasy peace, with the provision that all the creation forges be dismantled, thus resulting in no new warforged being created; when the last died, that would be the end of their race.

The warforged, being freed and with no war to fight, are left adrift to pursue their own devices. I like them because they are effectively a child race forced to interact with the adults. Their only experience is fighting, and now they are forced to live like normal, civilized folks.

There's a lot to go on with playing a warforged. Now I realize that androids aren't warforged. But the lack of anything resembling history is frustrating; all they get is about a page of back story.


I am playing a an android alchemist, chiregeon, who is now ninth level. She only has vague memories of her "birth" and has a desire to understand the world. She has come to worship, if thats the right word, irorii. I have slanted many of the alchemist abilities in terms of technology, for example the fast healing discovery is her nanites making repairs, which creeps out the other players when I offer to heal them. I took traits to flesh out the intellectual nature of the charcter, for example traits that allow me to use int for healing and intimidate, the precise drawback and the math prodigy trait.
With feral mutagen I turn into a metallic killing machine when I activate my mutagen ability
It has been a fun play to now.


On a related note, I would assume that androids have to eat, sleep, and breathe, since it doesn't specifically state otherwise?


Zhayne wrote:
On a related note, I would assume that androids have to eat, sleep, and breathe, since it doesn't specifically state otherwise?

Well, they are humanoids, and while they do not experience fatigue or exhaustion, they can suffer from poison and paralysis.

They are immune to sleep effects though...but hey, so are elves. Although the immunity to fatigue might be better justification for not needing to sleep (since 'rest' is different from sleep, I suppose that there is not really any reason for them to actually sleep, but this is very indirectly).

Still, food and water, as well as air, seem to be important. Maybe due to all that 'nanite' stuff they have going on.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
SunsetPsychosis wrote:

It could present an interesting interpretation of a Neutral or Lawful Neutral alignment. I can't see it being anything else, personally.

Data is a pretty good popular example. Spock is another potential influence. You could play it cold, or have some 'attempt to find humanity' thing going on.

Given how the race is constructed, I'd go more with Rayna from the Original Series, or Bishop from "Alien".


How about andromeda from the andromeda series.


lemeres wrote:
Zhayne wrote:
On a related note, I would assume that androids have to eat, sleep, and breathe, since it doesn't specifically state otherwise?

Well, they are humanoids, and while they do not experience fatigue or exhaustion, they can suffer from poison and paralysis.

They are immune to sleep effects though...but hey, so are elves. Although the immunity to fatigue might be better justification for not needing to sleep (since 'rest' is different from sleep, I suppose that there is not really any reason for them to actually sleep, but this is very indirectly).

Still, food and water, as well as air, seem to be important. Maybe due to all that 'nanite' stuff they have going on.

Darn. That ruins half the fun for me.

Grand Lodge

The whole "nanite" thing gave me a sort of T-1000 image in my mind.

I am not sure what kind of fuel they use though.

Could be food, water, and oxygen.


blackbloodtroll wrote:

The whole "nanite" thing gave me a sort of T-1000 image in my mind.

I am not sure what kind of fuel they use though.

Could be food, water, and oxygen.

Could be interesting RP when it comes to down to what they accept as food though. It might just be about 'burning fuel'. And with those large bonuses against poison, I'd imagine they aren't too picky. Leaves, twigs, and fugu anyone?


I'm playing as an Android gunslinger in one game set in the Land of the Linnorm Kings. He is not quite emotionless, and when I speak in-character I typically use a semi-normal (albeit stunted) voice. He's probably one of the few androids who, while is certainly interested in his origins and his place in the grand scheme of things, is not particularly concerned about such philosophical things.

That being said, I plan on playing up his android-ness by being completely naive in some social situations or saying things that literally make no sense and are out of context. Ie "this Linnorm reminds me of the gamma radiation a singularity leaks when it eats a star!"


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lemeres wrote:
blackbloodtroll wrote:

The whole "nanite" thing gave me a sort of T-1000 image in my mind.

I am not sure what kind of fuel they use though.

Could be food, water, and oxygen.

Could be interesting RP when it comes to down to what they accept as food though. It might just be about 'burning fuel'. And with those large bonuses against poison, I'd imagine they aren't too picky. Leaves, twigs, and fugu anyone?

Unfortunately, their need to eat/breathe/etc. makes it difficult for me to imagine them as anything other than an organic being infused with nanites, a la Generator Rex, than an artificial being. Not having to eat and surviving in a vacuum are just things I see as an innate part of androids/robots/etc.


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Android Henry Kissinger. The paragon of realpolitik.

'I don't understand the problem.'

"You instigated a war between neighboring kingdoms."

'Two foreign kingdoms that offered lucretive trade deals, which will fund infrastructure projects.'

"People are dying."

'Foreigners that represent no immediate concern to our kingdom.'


Actually I don't think they need to sleep, although spellcasters do need eight hours rest.

Grand Lodge

The "not subject to fatigue or exhaustion, and are immune to disease and sleep effects" part makes the no need for sleep rather clear.


According to "The Ecology of the Android," in Part 1 of Iron Gods, Androids don't sleep.


King_Of_The_Crossroads wrote:

Wow, this thread has spawned some fascinating discussion on the topic of empathy and general psychology. I'm impressed.

What's hard about figuring out the emotionless aspect of the race is based on a lack of history. I'll use the warforged from Eberron as a comparison. Like the androids, the warforged are a form of living constructs crafted for use in the Last War; they were sold to any and all countries that wanted tireless soldiers who followed orders without question.

After the war ended, the nations signed a treaty ensuring an uneasy peace, with the provision that all the creation forges be dismantled, thus resulting in no new warforged being created; when the last died, that would be the end of their race.

The warforged, being freed and with no war to fight, are left adrift to pursue their own devices. I like them because they are effectively a child race forced to interact with the adults. Their only experience is fighting, and now they are forced to live like normal, civilized folks.

There's a lot to go on with playing a warforged. Now I realize that androids aren't warforged. But the lack of anything resembling history is frustrating; all they get is about a page of back story.

Data, Spock, and all the "emotionless" characters in fiction tend to show emotion, being truly "emotionless" doesn't really make sense as a character in the first place. Emotions are drives, such an automaton would have no drives, and simply shut down without specific controls.

But having subdued, alien, or strangely-expressed emotions is fairly common and easy, and that is what actually works for android characters.

As for physiology, I operate under the assumption they are like the original Human Torch or (by extension) Vision (or Mary Shelley's original Frankenstein's Monster, for that matter). Semi-organic, fueled in part by organic sources, but still artificially manufactured and full of synthetic materials/parts.

Nanites come in soft varieties, which would actually require organic materials to reproduce. Even if they're hard nanites it isn't that hard to have an organic life form consume some extra minerals.

Tangential: A friend of mine had a home-brew campaign where dwarves literally had to eat rocks as part of their diet. Not a lot, but some. Their blood was so thick they needed Heartstones (magic gemstone pacemaker implants) which would grow throughout their lives from the other gems and minerals they ate, and were implanted via use of petrification and stone shape/meld magic.

There was also a whole thing about medical procedures and funerary rites involving turning them to stone, but I'm getting off topic.


Zhayne wrote:
lemeres wrote:
blackbloodtroll wrote:

The whole "nanite" thing gave me a sort of T-1000 image in my mind.

I am not sure what kind of fuel they use though.

Could be food, water, and oxygen.

Could be interesting RP when it comes to down to what they accept as food though. It might just be about 'burning fuel'. And with those large bonuses against poison, I'd imagine they aren't too picky. Leaves, twigs, and fugu anyone?
Unfortunately, their need to eat/breathe/etc. makes it difficult for me to imagine them as anything other than an organic being infused with nanites, a la Generator Rex, than an artificial being. Not having to eat and surviving in a vacuum are just things I see as an innate part of androids/robots/etc.

Robots need air too! What do you think the fans in your computer are for? Without air your computer would quickly overheat.


King_Of_The_Crossroads wrote:

I like the race, I really do; it's pretty much the closest thing to my all time favorite race, the Warforged from the Eberron setting.

Has anyone ever actually played one, and if so, how did you do it? I'm trying to wrap my head around the lack of background information on the race, as well as how to play the emotionless angle.

Ideally, I'd like to eventually play an android character. But so far, my mind is drawing blanks.

I was under the impression that there was a source book that detailed them a bit. Like... People of the Rivers? It was one that went over them. I think the Iron Gods AP had more info on them, flavor wise, too.

Something along the lines of being made by the starship that crashed into numeria, and being dormant.


I see the androids as possessing the full range of emotions, but their emotions are distant from their personalities. Maybe something like Droopy Dog.


From what I remember, they are immune to morale effects and take a -4 to sense motive because they don't compute emotions properly.

I would say that it's kind of along the same lines of sociopathy but inherently different; The Android has an emotional subroutine that exists, but is not at all prevalent or has any weight on their decisions. A good media example I can think of is the Contractors in the Anime Darker than Black.

This seems to be about right since there's a feat that an Android player can take that removes their immunity to morale effects and the -4 to social actions they normally have.

If people think androids are unbalanced the way they are, then perhaps them having that be a default would be a good idea.


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One of my players has Aspergers, and she seems very pleased to play an android, as it suits her personality fairly well. I don't think I have seen her ever get into a character so much.

Grand Lodge

SunsetPsychosis wrote:

You could make a trio of Android bards.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojYK6CW8gdw[/url]

That is by far the best comment I have seen in a long time. SPG is awesome.


I don't really think humans can be emotionless as it's mostly wired in and acts 'beneath' what we would call conscious thought. There would have to be some serious changes to our primitive brain and that would likely spell death. I'm not a brain expert but my knowledge on the topics lead me to that conclusion. Our brain also learns by reinforcement and most of it is just feedback, not logic.
I think we can "play" logical to some extent but there is a vast difference between brain neuron logic and standard Aristotelian style constructed logic.

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the people with the purest most unchanged memories are amnesiacs *-<8^)


Deadmanwalking wrote:
These threads address this topic extensively (especially the second one), with James Jacobs dropping in there to give some advice on how to handle the 'emotionless' thing (which, thematically, seems to resemble not understanding emotions at all more than it does completely lacking them).

Key difference to remember about androids in the Golarion setting as opposed to typical science fiction androids... It's established that they DO HAVE souls which go on to an afterlife after death. Which means that they do transcend strict programming.

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